Greco-Egyptian integration in Ptolemaic Egypt

Question 1

Crisis of the Kingdom 2nd and 1st c BC

Answer 1

-Ptolemy I died, his son killed his brother and took throne (bad guy, always drunk, unworthy)

4th Syrian war 219BC

• Egyptians won Battle of Raphia
• Needed leader
• Ptolemaic army= Greco-Egyptian highly integrated

-Crisis in Kingdom produced socio-economic rivalry

207BC revolt of Upper Egypt - new pharaoh
204BC death of Ptolemy IV, succeeded by Ptolemy V (period of insecurity)

181BC death of Ptolemy V, leaves 2 young sons under rule of Queen Cleopatra I

Question 2

6th Syrian war- Antiochus IV’s invasion

Answer 2

170BC Antiochos IV of Syria invades Egypt, crowned King in Memphis

168BC Romans force him to leave Egypt
-he tried to be friends with the Romans

145BC Ptolemy VI dies, younger brother is sole ruler- marries Cleopatra II

Question 3

Potter’s Oracle

Answer 3

-Written by Egyptian priests
Revised between 130 and 116 BCE

-On the “Island of the Sun” a potter sent by the god Thoth reveals, in the presence of an imaginary king Amenophis a terrible portrayal of the physical and moral decline of Egypt and its inhabitants in a period of foreign rule and predicts the arrival of a king who will bring prosperity after the self-destructive fall of the foreigners.
-Shortly after he takes as second queen Kleopatra III, daughter of Kleopatra II and Ptolemy VI.
132-130 BCE civil war between the two queens

Question 4

Greek-Egyptian tensions?

Answer 4

petition was sent in 161 BC to a local governor by one of the men who lived in isolation in the sanctuary, probably as a form of religious initiation.

Question 5

Egypt and Rome

Answer 5

140BC Scipio Aemillanus visits Egypt with Roman embassy

• Ptolemy VIII onward became puppet state under Roman control
• Civil wars of Egypt met with Roman civil wars
• When last Ptolemaic queen, Cleopatra VII had relationship with Caesar (who supported her against her brother and then Mark Antony)
• After she died, Egypt became imperial province